The present invention relates to telecommunications equipment in general, and, more particularly, to a wireless terminal assembly that is used with a wireless telecommunications system.
As wireless telecommunications (e.g., cellular telephony, paging services, etc.) have become popular, manufacturers of wireless terminals (e.g., cellular telephones, pagers, personal digital assistants, etc.) have sought to make their wireless terminals dimensionally smaller and lighter than those of their competitors. In fact, many prospective purchasers select one model of wireless terminal over another model principally because of the relative size of the two models, and extremely small wireless terminals often command a huge price premium in the marketplace.
Therefore, the need exists for smaller wireless terminals.
The present invention is a wireless terminal assembly that enables a thinner wireless terminal to be fabricated than some assemblies in the prior art. In the prior art, the display module and battery module of a wireless terminal assembly are mounted on different faces of a printed circuit board assembly. And because the display module and the battery module are typically the thickest modules in the wireless terminal assembly, the overall thickness of the wireless terminal assembly is typically constrained by the sum of the thicknesses of the display module, the printed circuit board assembly and the battery module.
In contrast, and in accordance with the first illustrative embodiments of the present invention, the display module and battery module are mounted on the same side of a single printed circuit board. In this case, the overall thickness of the wireless terminal assembly is, instead, constrained by the sum of the thickness of the printed circuit board plus the thicker of the display module and the battery module. In general, the illustrative embodiments provide a thinner wireless terminal assembly than some assemblies in the prior art without a fundamental change in the basic technology with which the individual components of both assemblies are made.
Often, however, the display module and the battery module cannot be summarily mounted on the same side of a printed circuit board without other changes being made to the wireless terminal assembly. For example, if the display module and battery module are mounted on the same side of a printed circuit board, some accommodation must be made for where to put the keypad, if there is one. In accordance with one illustrative embodiment of the present invention, each battery module is fabricated with a thin permanently-integrated keypad. In general, this is economically acceptable because the cost of the keypad is typically small in comparison to the cost of the battery module and the wireless terminal assembly overall.
Some embodiments of the present invention comprise: a printed circuit board assembly having a first face and a second face; a display module that is mounted on the first face of the printed circuit board assembly and that is electrically connected to the printed circuit board assembly; and a battery module that is removably-mounted on the first face of the printed circuit board assembly, wherein the battery module is electrically connected to the printed circuit board assembly when the battery module is mounted on the first face of the printed circuit board assembly.